There are a number of online services that provide financial information for companies. The financial information provided typically includes stock charts and related data (e.g., stock price, trading volume, daily price range, 52-week price range, P/E, EPS, market cap, ask/bid, etc). The financial information also usually includes company news as reported by various sources (e.g., such as articles on quarterly earnings reports and other financially relevant events, new product launches, law suits, mergers, acquisitions, partnerships, joint ventures, licensing agreements, and other business dealings).
These services are generally associated with a number of problems. For instance, users have historically been presented with only static visual charts that depict historical financial performance data of publicly traded companies. To change the time frame of a chart, the user typically has to either manually enter the start and stop chart dates (e.g., using a pop-up calendar or typing in dates), or select one of a group of pre-set time periods (e.g., 1-day, 5-day, 1-month, 3-month, 1-year, 5-year, and 10-year). Moreover, the user can only view financial chart data for the specific time period selected.
In addition, reported news is typically displayed separately from the chart, thereby making it difficult for the user to understand how that news may have impacted stock price. This problem is exacerbated when the time period covered by a chart is long, and includes many potentially relevant news articles that may have significantly impacted stock price or otherwise be relevant to a potential investor. Although some companies provide stock charts that are annotated with company-generated news articles, such self-reporting tends to be biased by the company and cannot be completely trusted, relative to a more objective source. For instance, a company generally will not report unfavorable news about itself.
Also, users are typically limited in how they can interact with conventional stock charts. For instance, a user can usually only set the time period that the chart covers. The user has no control, however, over other aspects of information provided. For instance, the user cannot define preferences for the type or focus of reported news that is provided. Nor can the user define the industry category or sector to which the target company belongs, so as to obtain information about other companies relevant to that category/sector.
Also, typical online financial services generate chart images at a server, and then send those images to the requesting client/user. Each time the user requests a new chart view, a new chart image has to be sent to the user. Such systems are wasteful, as they fail to recognize and exploit the overlap between the new and old chart views. In addition, the need to produce chart images from vectors in real-time tends to result in charts that are generally hard to read and lack a professional look and feel, thereby detracting from the user experience. Other services utilize custom software that their users can download and install. While this latter approach can result in an improvement in the user experience, the need to install software on a user's computer may prevent its widespread adoption.
What is needed, therefore, are financial charting techniques that provide improved navigation aids to assist the user, and in a more general sense, techniques that facilitate and encourage the user's use and understanding of financial information presented.